Billy here, married, 3 kids under the age of 13. We're waiting on our first "family" pet, adoption took place yesterday 12/21. Chocolate brown, 2 months old, was picked up as a stray. The kids are excited to be first time pet owners and although I am familiar with the breed having owned over 4 myself, my wife is not and it has been over 12 years since I last owned one.

We haven't been able to socialize with our new pup, we'll be picking up from the shelter on 12/26. I do have a few concerns, the main one dealing with one of his paws. The vet at the shelter called it "Severe Carpal Laxity", we did research this on our own, and most of the sites assure that with a healthy diet and regular exercise this problem should fix itself. We were also told that because of this problem, most people did not want to adopt him. We consider ourselves lucky to find a pup this age, and the problem with his paw is not a big issue, but we could definitely use some pointers as to how we can deal with it once he is home.

My wife is interested in training the puppy, she's a first time bully mommy and needs all the pointers she can get because she will be the one who spends the majority of the day with our pup.

Adopting was the only way to go for us and I think the fact that he had this growth defect sealed the deal after the woman at the shelter told me it was highly likly that my litle guy would end up spending his last days there,If you could get me access to post as soon as you can I would appreciate it I'm eagar to get some advice on getting him healthy